Skeleton crew
by AceBantura
Summary: While attempting to colonize the desolate planet Eadu, the Imperial skeleton crew stationed there quickly realise that despite what they previously believed, they are not alone...
1. The storms

The storms

Rett Havel was getting old. He wasn't so old that he would no longer be needed but he was old enough for grey hairs and the loss of enthusiasm he had had as a young officer.

He'd survived the entirety of the Clone wars and now here he was, all of the fighting over. All he could do now was think and there was plenty of time for that. So much had changed in so little time, it was almost hard to believe clones were no longer the bulk of the Empires fighting force although he still had a few with him. Many were still in the Venator hovering in orbit and monitoring the surrounding system though there was one in the skeleton crew that had accompanied him.

He was an Admiral now of course, in command of his own Venator class star destroyer but that wouldn't last long. It was being decommissioned after this mission. He would miss her dearly and they had already stripped her of the red paint he had been so fond of. She was a dull grey now. He had so many memories there, of comradeship and fear. The Sentinel had served him almost since the beginning of the clone wars.

He'd lived through so much and now he was here, on this hellhole of a planet. Nothing but constant storms, day in day out. No living thing for hundreds of miles. And right now one of the biggest storms the planet had seen was heading directly for them. The new Empire that had formed after the Republic had been replaced so suddenly wanted this planets storms to be tamed in an attempt to make it safer for landing shuttles. Shuttles, he had been told, that held valuable cargo.

He had been ordered to set up an atmospheric processor to clear the sky's to ease the development of a research facility nearby. A facility that he did not know the purpose of whatsoever. It wasn't his business, too low low a rank he supposed. Something to do with weopons development was all he'd been told.

Rett sighed as he sipped lightly on some coffee. He was relaxed for the first time in years despite the cragged and grey landscape outside of the viewport in front of him. He slowly raised the data-pad in front of him and looked at the data. Construction of the processor had finished for over a standard month, now it was just a long range communication tower that needed to be established.

Although droids did most of the work there was still a human touch needed to make sure nothing went wrong. That was his job now he supposed but someone needed to do it.

So far however the communications unit had been a struggle to put up, constant interference even on the clearest days. He sighed, steam rising from his warm drink taking another smaller sip before turning on his heel and stalking off down the corridor, briefly wiping at his moustache to ensure there was no froth. It had happened too many times before and had never stopped getting a laugh out of the rest of his men.

He smiled slightly before heading deeper into the station, towards the communications center. The still had short range communications but even that barely reached The Sentinel, the research facility was recieving its first shuttle of supplies today including resources for experimentation. All it did on his datapad was "biological research". He hated being kept in the dark, but there wasn't much else here anyways.


	2. The approach

The approach

The atmospheric processor which Rett was currently walking through was not connected to the research facility. Although the atmospheric processor and communications center were both within the same structure, the Empire had decided if one was destroyed they didn't want the other to go with it.

As such, the research facility had been embedded into the side of a ravine and was only easily accessible by shuttle. In fact, while the research facility had a hangar bay full of TIE fighters the atmospheric processor only had a single, Lambda-class shuttle for basic transportation.

The landing pad had been created to hold at maximum, two shuttles and in about an hour the Lambda would be joined temporarily by a Zeta-class shuttle to drop off supplies which were running short before hopping to the research base to refuel and drop off supplies along with... Something else.

Rett ran this through his head as he stalked through the labyrinth of corridors and hallways that made up the processor. Always a deep grey with bright, wight lights. He could only imagine how dark it would be without those lights.

"It should be a standard drop off..." He muttered to himself as he checked his data pad "So why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

He finally arrived at the communications center and set his mug down ontop of one of the consoles before going to the only other person in the room.

"Morning Admiral, nice view today?" Asked Vale, the processors only engineer, tiredly. She was currently leaning back in her chair with her legs ontop off the comm unit, her cap over her face. "Maybe today's the day I could start working on my tan." She said before he could answer, crossing her legs on the console as she pull her cap further down over her face,

"Good morning to you too Head engineer Vale Yen. Good to see how hard you're working." He sighed slightly as he pushed her legs off the console. "However now I need some effort out of you, please establish communications with the Sentinel. I need an update on planetary weather activity."

She pulled her cap up, straightening it before setting to work on the console. "No problem boss, the storm is starting to make things a bit hazy now though. The interference it causes is insane, unnatural almost."

"We have less than an hour before supplies arrive, I need to make sure things are safe." He swallowed and tugged at his sleeve, straightening creases that weren't there. He was nervous, but why? This was standard routine. No reason to worry.

"What's the worst that could happen, boss? No rebel scum would want to come near this place, I didn't even know about this place before I was sent here. We've got a link, patching you through now"

She pressed a few more buttons before a static infused voice played through the speaker.

"Atmospheric processor zero one, this is the Sentinel, what is the reason for communication?" Asked the voice, most likely Vice Admiral Tel.

"This is Admiral Rett Havel, communications established to ask for an update of planetary weather systems along with any other noteworthy updates." Said Rett through a comm-link on his wrist.

"Understood Admiral, good to hear from you. Retrieving weather updates now... The data should have arrived?" Said the Vice Admiral.

Rett looked over to Vale, questioningly. She glanced at her screen then nodded.

"Data recieved Vice Admiral, thank you"

"Before you go Admiral! We've just recieved word. The supply shuttle is arriving early and will be making it's approach from the North side of the planet now, that is all." The Vice Admiral cut communications.

Rett frowned slightly before lowering his wrist. His brow was creased in thought. His eyes widened as he rushed to the screen in front of Vale, pushing her to the side, almost out of her chair.

"What the kriff, Admiral?!" She cried as he stared at the screen.

"The storm has approached faster than first anticipated and has almost doubled in intensity..." He rubbed his brow. "And the shuttle is flying right through the whole thing."


	3. The emergency

Rett sprinted out of the communications center heading as fast as he could to the medical bay. As he ran he spoke hectically into the comm-link on his wrist."Vale, I need communications with that shuttle established now! And sound the alarm, if that shuttle goes down we need to send a rescue team immediately!"

"I'm on it Admiral, the base security team has been alerted but there's no response from the med-bay!" She replied frantically, worry in her usually calm voice.

"I'm heading there now anyway, tell the security team to prep the Lambda, we need to be ready." He said as he turned a sharp corner, rushing down a set of stairs finally reaching the medical bay.

I/I/I/I

CT-7713 lay in his bunk, staring at the plain grey ceiling above him. He lay as he usually would in his bunk above the Rookie he was training. The room was a bland grey like the rest of the station and tonight like most nights he was struggling to sleep.

CT-7713 or Charmer as his old brothers had nicknamed him was, as usual, unable to sleep. He wasn't sure why he was so restless but ever since his arrival on Eadu he had restless nights and tiring days.

He had developed noticeable bags under his eyes that didn't suit his handsome yet aged features. The clone ageing process was getting to him now. His hair was greying but he kept himself shaved. He still had the deep brown eyes he shared with many of his brothers. He was also one of the last clones created on his homeworld of Kamino, a home he knew he would never see again.

Well, at least he still had his silver tongue even in his later days. He had, afterall, earned his nickname for a reason.

Suddenly there's was a loud and intrusive beeping, making Charmer jump, smacking his head against the ceiling of his shared quarters.

The loud clang that was created by this incident had the unfortunate affect of waking up his bunk mate and cadet Eno Phyte. The boy was young, Charmer would argue too young. And in the name of the Force he would swear he would never meet a more annoying person.

Charmer could hear the groans of the waking rookie behind him as he leaped off his bunk, reaching for the comm-link in his locker. His pristine white armour, perfectly laid out he quickly activated the comm-link.

"This is Cha- I mean, this is CT-7713, what's all the fuss about?" He quickly asked, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

"Heya Charmer, better sleep tonight?" Vale asked. Before he could answer she spoke once again. "We've got an emergency on our hands, a Zeta-class transport shuttle is coming in through dangerous weather, if it goes down we need to be ready!"

"Sure thing Vale, be up there before you can say parsec." he said as he pulled on his black body glove. He grinned with excitement, finally he would see some excitement on this bland rock.

He pulled open Eno's locker, pulling out his helmet and throwing it at the lump that was currently covered by a blanket. He heard a slight oof as the helmet made contact.

"Get up nerfherder, we've got an emergency!" He said more jovially than perhaps he should have.

"Yeah yeah old-timer, finally retiring?" Eno groaned as he sat up, his brown hair a mess on his head. He had what could only be described as sharp features, he was thin with sharp nose and chin and his eyes were an icey blue.

"Not quite yet, shiny. We could be making a trip planetside. A shuttle has gone missing, now get your armour on!"

Charmer stood proudly as he lifted his helmet, his final piece of armour. At least he hadn't lost his touch quite yet. He looked into the blackened eyes of his helmet before turning it and sliding it on over his head.


	4. The call

It had taken over a standard year for the Executor to be constructed. It was one of the Empires most ambitious projects and after the recent events with the rising rebellion it's completion was essential.

In command officially was Admiral Ozzel, the very definition of a fat cat. Too big for his boots and unfit for command of such a mighty vessel.

All of this floating around in Vader's head as he sat in his newly constructed meditation chamber aboard the Executor. His helmet removed he could breathe freely, the cool air and clear space around him a welcome reprieve to his humid and claustrophobic helmet.

Vader, in deep meditation reached out with the force. He often found when being trapped in the suits prison like confines became too much for him, sensing the galaxies life was an excellent technique for relaxing himself, if only for a while. He began thinking about the ship once more.

A much more suitable candidate for the Vessels command would be the current captain who, despite being young showed much potential when compared to Ozzel's clumsy nature.

In fact, he could sense him now...Vader quickly slid his finger to the control panel to his right, lowering his helmet and resealing it. His chair turned as his chamber opened revealing the rest of the room and the young Captain Piett standing to attention.

"My Lord, I wish to to inform you that the Executor is now capable of Hyperspace travel and her systems are fully functional." He informed Vader briskly "We merely await Admiral Ozzel's arrival before making our maiden voyage to Coruscant."

"How are the weapon systems?" Vader asked, wishing to ensure nothing was wrong before their arrival.

"Fully operational, my Lord." The young Captain replied, brimming with pride. "And the Admiral should arrive within the next hour or so."

"Let us hope he will not delay us any further, I am certain the Emperor will not be happy that one of his... prized ships is..." Vader suddenly felt fatigued, he found his vision darkening at the edges, his heart beating twice as fast and his breathing accelerated!

And then, in the what would have been less than a second Vader was wrenched across the galaxy, he saw a planet riddled with storms and darkness, he felt the weak presence of Imperials but far more than that he felt a disturbance.

There was something on this planet that emanated pure hatred and rage. A being of pure darkness that lived in shadow. Vader could sense it's danger and he could sense that something was about to go very wrong. Something that if not contained could destroy this galaxy.

The Force was calling him to this place, and Vader knew that it was to put an end to this threat, whatever it was for it was far too dangerous to be left uncontrolled.

Once again Vader was wrenched but this time it was back to the Executor, back into his chamber. His vision cleared and he found he was slumped, leaning in his chair, his heart racing and his breath coming out in deep rasps. Piett stared at Vader, unsure of what to say at this sign of... Weakness?

"My...my Lord are you-!" Vader cut him off before he could finish his sentence with a raise of his hand. His rasping breathes coming in quick succession.

"Order all men to get to their stations and prepare for a hyperspace jump, we are leaving without the Admiral. You are in command for now Captain." Vader said, slowly rising from his chair.

"Yes my Lord, I will order the men to prepare the jump to Coruscant!" Said Piett, regaining his composure quickly.

"No Captain, Coruscant is no longer our destination. The Force has called to me and I will answer. Set our new destination to Eadu in the Outer Rim." Vader said, his commanding voice booming throughout the chamber. "The Emperor can wait."


	5. The crash

Rett walked up to the med-bay doors and they slid open with the slightest hiss. The stark white of the wide room was a sharp contrast to the grey in the rest of the station.

Within was a large transparent tube of bacta, always ready incase of injury and in a corner to the right was a deactivated medical droid. The room was pristine and quiet as if no one had ever been here which Rett supposed made sense since there had been few injuries on the station.

"Doctor! We need you on standby!" Rett cried "Where the hell is she...?" He muttered to himself.

Doctor Vaz'ezali'cittig or Zali as she was more well known was the stations only doctor and was well known amongst the skeleton crew for being Chiss. Not even Vale who had visited planets Rett couldn't even name had never heard of the Chiss before Zali's arrival.

None of crew aboard the Sentinel had even seen her. She had personally been asked to be transferred here for reasons unknown but the skeleton crew had speculated it had something to do with the research taking place in the ravine.

Rett thought she was stunning. Her raven black hair and scarlet eyes. He had not "made moves" on her and he doubted he ever would since he wanted to make sure that their relationship was purely professional. It was far easier that way.

Rett shook his head, his mind wandered far too often. He quickly strode to the entrance to Zali's quarters smacking his palm against the door.

"Doctor! You may be needed in the near future, if you aren't ready now please be ready then." He said loudly. Suddenly, the doors hissed open.

"I'm always ready, Rett. I just prefer to use my time wisely." She said breezing past him, her hair flowing over her shoulders. She walked to the nearby Medical droid and activated it before heading to a nearby by cabinet removing bandages and painkillers.

Rett watched on she worked, unsure of what to say. Being around her made him... uncomfortable. He was always in two minds about her. Her deep red eyes unsettled him greatly if he stared for too long and she carried herself with confidence. After some brief research on the Chiss he had discovered they were a very proud species.

As she prepared equipment around the room she asked "What is the situation Admiral?"

"We've lost comms with a shuttle out in the storm, worst case scenario is the shuttle goes down..." He trailed off, if the shuttle went down in that storm who knows if they would even be able to find them. "It contains supplies essential to the Empire if it goes down we could be in a lot of trouble."

She looked over at him sharply. "You lost that shuttle out there?!" She practically hissed him.

Rett stared at her shocked at this sudden outburst from from the usually calm and collected woman. "It... It was a completely unforeseen circumstance, there was nothing any of us could do."

Zali rushed past him back into her room and before Rett could ask she rushed back out again with something in her hands.

"Zali, where are you going?!" He cried after her before following her out. He pulled his wrist up activating his comm-link once again. "Vale, what the kriff is going on?! Have you found the shuttle?!"

"Something's not right, Admiral. It says they're well within communication range but there's nothing but static. I don't have an exact location but they're definitely getting closer." She said quickly.

"Keep trying to get through, we need to know their status ASAP! And get the security team ready, if this ends up being a crash instead of a landing we need everyone to help or people could die." He said, still rushing after Zali who strode ahead, continuously going up floor after floor. After the elevators had malfunctioned the the long range communications had been prioritised instead of a faster way up and down in the station.

"I'll call you back Vale, I think me and the good Doctor are about to make a quick trip outside, tell me if you get some new information." He quickly ended the call just as he caught up with the Doctor who was just entering the access codes for the top floors roof exit.

"Doctor, I really don't think this is a good idea, the conditions are terrible outside. Why are we even leaving?" He asked the door slid open and any answer he received was blasted away by the wind and rain.

It came down in torrents, lashing against his face. Through squinted eyes he could see the Doctor leaving, her hand covering her face and in the distance lighting before the rumbling clap of thunder followed.

He pushed through the wind after her, half blinded by the force of storm. He reached her once again and she stood with the object he now recognised as a pair of macrobinoculars. She scanned left and right, her face in a grimace.

He shouted to her so that she could hear him over the wind "You won't find anything, the storm is too bad!"

He couldn't if she simply didn't hear him or had ignored him but she continued to scan nonetheless. Whatever was on that shuttle must have been very important for her to brave this weather.

Rett turned his back to the storm and realised his comm-link was blinking rapidly. He activated it and pressed it to his ear. "-oming in hot Admiral! It's far too fast, they must have lost control! Admiral, do you copy?! The shuttle is going to hit us!"

It was as if time slowed to a crawl. The Admiral lowered his wrist from his ear and turned, starting to sprint towards Zali. But he was far too late.

The Doctor had turned and was looking off to the left. Perhaps believing the shuttle had gone off course and could not see the massive ship, one of its four wings burning, heading directly at them far faster than could be recovered from for a safe landing.

The last Rett remembered before being flung from his feet was the shuttle smashing directly into the side of the station.


	6. The aftermath

Charmer jerked up, or at least, he tried to. He was awake, of that he was certain and he was still alive so that was something.

He had no idea what had happened. Him and Eno had been on the way to the armoury when it was like the the walls had exploded around them.

Charmer took it slow, shifting slightly, moving his head left and right a little. No sudden moves in case whatever was on top of him shifted and crushed him like a Gundark crushing... Well, a Gundark crushing anything really.

It was completely dark, the debris not letting in any light but there was something... Heat! A building heat that he could feel even through his armour. There was a fire, of course there was a fire.

Charmer pulled his arms up to his chest and pushed with all his strength. It was enough and the sheet of durasteel that was trapping him slowly shifted off. He grunted as with one final push the sheet was off him and he sat panting. His helmet helped him breath through the thick smoke and he took in the readings on his visor, looking for signs of life.

He took a deep breath and looked around him. Where was Eno?! Perhaps more importantly right now, fires were raging throughout the sector and until proven otherwise Charmer could safely assume that there even more throughout the station.

As he looked around his attention was drawn to the wall the explosion had actually came from. There wasn't much left but it looked as if some sort of shuttle had hit the station. He was lucky to be alive and mostly unscathed. The main body of the thing looked mostly intact but he would look for survivors later, right now these fires had to be dealt with.

Suddenly he heard a loud clanging and he looked to the right, a large lumbering carbonite war droid was approaching the crash site. War droids had been installed in the station earlier in its construction to deter any pirate attacks. This one must have believed the crash to have been some sort of attack and been activated.

The flamethrower usually found aboard the War droids had been replaced with a large carbonite spray nozzle incidents such as this. It began spraying the area nearby, struggling to put out the larger fires but slowly getting the job done. The hulking behemoth also carried a large blast resistant shield in it's other arm.

Charmer stood brushing himself off when his helmet finally alerted him to a nearby life sign. He began walking towards the source. Eno had been closer to the crash than he had at the time, he could only hope he had been as lucky to get away away unharmed.

Suddenly he found his path blocked by debris no man could dream of moving. He looked back over over to the lumbering droid and gave a quick whistle. The droid turned slowly, looking at him with cold blue eyes. "I need your help! Clear this stuff out of the way, would you?" Charmer cried out. The droid quickly made its way towards him, well, as fast as the thing could go.

The droid reached the wall of debris and stood still for a few seconds, analysing the obstacle before suddenly slamming it's shield down in front of Charmer making him yelp and jump back. "What the hell are you doing?!" Charmer shouted up the a large droid. It replied with two deep bleeps that sounded to charmer like the droid was calling him a wuss.

The droid began spraying down the debris with carbonite which quickly froze the heated metal before bashing it to tiny slivers with his canon. Shards of frozen metal glancing off the shield. Charmer gave a slight sigh of relief as he stepped around the shield, smacking his hand against it twice as a sign of thanks before moving quickly through the cleared path. He could now clearly see the shuttle ahead of him. It looked like a Zeta class shuttle which was surprisingly mostly intact although it's left wings had been sheered clean off. The main body seemed to have remained unscathed.

The life sign was right beside the crashed shuttle where the concentration of the debris was most intense. Eventually, he wormed his way through, to the source.

Charmer could only stare. His breathing became strained as he looked upon his fellow soldier, his brother in arms as blood dripped out from around a large wound in the left side of his stomach. Eno was pinned to the wall behind him by a thick shard of durasteel and his helmet had shattered perhaps after smashing against the wall. It had cracked open on the left side showing some of his scruffy hair now matted with blood.

Charmer rushed to his side, quickly recovering from the briefest second of panic, before kneeling and taking off the remains of Eno's helmet. Eno was alive and he planned to keep him that way.

He shook the boy gently and his eyes opened sluggishly like a drunkard with a hangover. Eno looked slowly at charmer before muttering "The armour didn't help much..." Charmer gave a light chuckle but he felt himself go cold. "I don't think they had this in mind when they made it buddy." Charmer replied, as he pulled a small med-pack from his belt.

Eno coughed weakly as he lay, before looking behind Charmer and smiling slightly "Well I'll be damned, a War droid. Never thought I'd see one of those bad boys up close..." He muttered to himself before raising a hand to wave. He quickly regretted the sudden movement and gasped, tears coming to his eyes.

"Stop moving! I'm going to patch you up and take you to see the Doc, then we can finally get off this planet and back to the Sentinel." Charmer said in an attempt to comfort the boy. "How does that sound, eh?"

There was no response. Charmer looked up to find Enough had passed out. He sighed and placed a bacta patch on the boys head. He doubted he would make it through the rest of the day and he had no idea how to deal with such a dangerous injury.

He looked around himself before his eyes came to rest on the cause of this chaos. He would have to check the shuttle for medical supplies.


End file.
